'Nother Napkin Drawing

Simple as that.

Napkins: for more than just wiping your mouth

So recently I've begun a new past-time. I often find myself sitting at the college cafeteria waiting for my friends to show up for meals and that has led me to look for things to occupy my time with. First I brought my DS to play Pokemon but I realized it made me sleepy. I then decided to see if I could use the time to talk to my folks but naturally a daily phone conversation will not go on for half an hour. Usually I show up for meals without my backpack, so I don't have any homework to do or paper to doodle on.

Then one day, I noticed a guy sitting at another table across from me. He had very interesting eyes and I wanted to capture them. Fortunately I had a pencil in my pocket and a basket of napkins in front of me. This was the result.


About a month before I was talking to my friend at dinner and he was explaining that when his friend tried to grow out a mustache the hair grew out very wispy. I then imagined the thin mustache to move like creeping tendrils blowing in the wind when his friend talked. To demonstrate, I did this little doodle.


Recalling this instance the moment I finished with the "eye detail" sketch, I decided it would be neat to have a bunch of drawn-on napkins tacked onto my dorm wall along with the things I've drawn on paper.

Today, while at lunch and waiting for people to show up I did another drawing. I decided to do one of the Czech figure skaters I saw last night on T.V. This time the napkins were different and the image is not as visible when scanned. It looks way better in real life.


Drawing on paper napkins is fun. It's challenging to try and not press too hard so that the napkin tears. It also provides for very soft shading. I only hope that I remember a pencil or pen any time I'm expecting a long wait for my friends at dinner.

Random Comics

Sometimes when I'm bored I draw random comics, simple as that.
The first one I was inspired by something I saw on the internet.
The second, deals with the sheep that was supposedly born with a human face.

First Ever Flash Animation

Over the weekend I began to tinker with Flash. I thought I might as well know it since I have the whole Adobe Suite on my computer. So I went online, found a tutorial, learned the basics, and finally started on something the next day.



It's totally random and it was made in under and hour. Though the image quality is low as I had to export it.
I plan to make more of these when I go back home and get to work with my tablet; but for now, it's all just mouse.

I suppose I was inspired because on Saturday I watched The Prince of Egypt and on Sunday The Thief and the Cobbler. Both have amazing animation but I must say Thief really took my breath away. I then did some delving and found out about the film's troubled past and it stirred me. I feel sorry for Richard Williams and hope one day The Thief and the Cobbler will be released as according to his original intentions. For now, I guess the closest thing to that is the fan-edited version, Recobbled Cut; which I still have yet to see (I plan on next weekend). Anyways, in short: The Thief and the Cobbler -- All animators and aim-to-be's should watch it.

Rich the Dog

Inspired by Est Em's "Nero", I decided to draw up what my dog would look like if he were human. End result.

Something New

So yesterday, I decided to try something different with my tablet, going monochrome (relatively). I thought two contrasting colors would be nice and I suppose that was my subconscious working to correlate the image with the plot of the story. It's another of my characters and he's the main character of the only sci-fi series I have in my head.

First I started with a line drawing, and here I actually had to flip the image a couple of times to make sure the face was relatively balanced.


Then I filled it in with a dark shadow, much in the tradition of comic books, and then added grays and color. After the figure was done, I did the background. I could push the details in the background a little more but the character is the subject, no need to detract from him.

Oil Painting

So last week, a couple of days before the new year, I worked on an oil painting.
I had found an old unused 9" x 12" canvas in storage and thought I'd use it.

I decided the painting would feature the main characters of another one of my story ideas. The two characters were inspired by waiters I saw during my stay in Prague. The other characters in the story were also inspired by hotel and restaurant workers I've encountered throughout my travels. And if it isn't apparent already, the blond one is also featured in the blog header.

Techniques and Difficulties: I painted the whole thing with two watercolor brushes, (a thin one and a thicker one) as I don't feel like going out to buy oil brushes since I'm not going to be painting these things very often (oils and canvas are expensive and I'd much rather do watercolors). The most frustrating part was trying to keep dust off of it while it was drying (and as of this moment, there are still a few moist patches). Tweezers were helpful in removing fibrous bits and small hairs.

So, yeah, unless I just happen across another canvas again, I won't be doing another one of these soon. I'll just stick to watercolors, tablet, and pencil/ink drawings for now.